Leinster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread XII (The Byrne Supremacy)

With Connors back, Penny will be idle. Connors will be looking to make the international summer tour.

James Treacy is a good 3rd option. He's not a world beater, but he's good and solid. It could well be his last contract with Leinster. He's could get a 1 year extension, but Barron and McKie are coming through.

ROL will probably start this week. His minutes are low thus far. What's his contract situation? I feel he is under pressure now. Osborne will probably get a contract and JOB can do a job at 13.

Has the Munster match been rescheduled?

I think I would go with:

1. Edward Byrne
2. James Tracy
3. Michael Ala'alatoa
4. Joe McCarthy
5. Ross Molony
6. Josh Murphy/Rhys Ruddock
7. Will Connors
8. Max Deegan
9. Luke McGrath
10. Harry Byrne
11. Rory O'Loughlin
12. Ciarán Frawley
13. Jamie Osborne
14. Tommy O'Brien
15. Jimmy O'Brien
16. John McKee
17. Peter Dooley
18. Vakhtang Abdaladze
19. Devin Toner
20. Scott Penny
21. Nick McCarthy
22. Ross Byrne
23. Adam Byrne

I'm not sure what they need wither of them for. Neither will progress I to Ireland standard players. They're both ok, and ok is ok but they can't hold on to all the ok players when they want to develop the young lads to see if they're better than ok.

If you love something, set it free. They're both in limbo at leinster. They'd be much more valuable to another team elsewhere.

Nonsense. Both solid squad players which a team like Leinster need when their internationals are away or recovering. Adam Byrnes only 27, he has plenty more to give. He's had an awful time with injury but you can see what playing for the province meant to him after he recently game back from injury. When he's fit and ready, hes never too far from teh team sheet. Too early to write him off.

It's great to see that it means a lot to the player, but that's not really what its about, is it?

And what team is he close to? He's certainly not close to the strongest starting leinster team. He's close to a start in a game like the Cardiff game at the weekend. But there are prospects who I would prefer to give gametime to instead of Adam Byrne who probably isn't going to improve much at this point.

Solid squad players are probably the pool from which they’ll pick the player who will need to give way in the post covid budget restrictions. Plus the fact that there are fewer games when the Ireland players are away means they're in lower demand than they were in the past.

Someone has to play the games in Cardiff though, and it cant be just the kids without more experienced players mixed in. For me the likes of Adam Byrne and Rory O'Loughlin fit in along with a bunch of other squad members (like Maloney, Dooley, Bent before he left) who while not spectacular are solid at URC level. I'm all for giving youth a chance but a little diversity in experience is the sensible option.

I agree with your last sentiment for sure. Realistically theres not enough pro contracts in Ireland at the moment for the young players coming through. I'd say we'll see a lot of movement over the next while and probably going forward.

Sure there is.

NZ don't lose young talent to overseas clubs and their model is very similar to ours.

If there's contracts for Greg Jones, Chris Cloete, Jason Jenkins, Andrew Warwick, James Tracy and Abraham Papali'i, then there's contracts for young Irish players.

Someone has to play those games and it can't all be kids. So it should be the ones like Ruddock who are very good but not in the Ireland team but would be fine at international level if called upon, not players who have hit their ceiling well short of international level.

Byrne has been desperately unlucky with injury, but if he's hit his cieling (I'm jot sure if he has and he has some time to show if he can improve again) but ROL is a player who is good but probably not good enough.

They will have to make those judgements about who to keep and who to bid farewell to.

Essentially yes.

It's not a perfect science and it's not a formula that can be plugged for everyone.

But a team like Leinster has an expectation of chasing silverware in 2 competitions year in year out.

The ideal picture to achieve this is a squad that is 3 deep - ie. 3 players in every position that can step up at a moments notice for knock out rugby with no noticeable dip in performance..... this is obviously not attainable but absolutely something that is strived for.

Players that don't look likely to hit those markers in what could be considered their "prime" generally have their days numbered

And 3 home games in a row in February

I think its up to the youth to make a claim for that jersey though? Let a young winger come and force his way into the reckoning leaving Adam Byrne out of squad and unable to get back in. If that happens then fair enough. But surely clearing people out ahead of this happening, for prospective talent isn't great for moral? Especially if they end up being like for like.